Welcome and unwelcome developments in journalism are reviewed in a new 'Trends in Newsrooms' report.

They include changing practices in investigative journalism, the erosion of source protection, the rise of automated reporting and the 'gamification' of news. The annual report from the World Editors Forum examines issues occupying the minds and work of editors, trends from the WEF editorsweblog.org and insights from more than 50 editors and senior journalists. Among the issues included are:

- New convergence: Where games, virtual reality and wearables meet news. There is a growing movement to combine two seemingly incompatible industries: gaming and the news. The 'gamification' of news, where video game technology and practices are used in conjunction with traditional journalism methods, is attracting renewed interest from newsrooms around the world. Media organisations including the BBC, the Guardian and the New York Times have all created their own news games in recent years, while BuzzFeed recently announced the creation of a gaming team devoted to creating content for the site.

- Source protection erosion: the rising threat to investigative journalism. It used to be possible to promise confidentiality to sources - guaranteeing the protection of their identities, even on pain of jail - in countries where legal source protection frameworks were robust. But these protections are being undercut by government surveillance and data retention policies, and it may no longer be ethically possible to promise confidentiality. These developments have an enormous impact on investigative journalism and are giving rise to increasing attention to risk assessment, self-protection and source education.

- The rise of the robots - welcome to your automated news future. The Associated Press has hired an automation editor, a first for the industry, and with automated reports on routine economic news becoming more common, the AP has announced it will use automated reporting to cover thousands of college sports games that would otherwise not be covered.

- Journalism after Charlie - lessons learned as the shockwaves continue. The Charlie Hebdo attack in central Paris graphically demonstrated that journalists continue to be terrorism targets - at their desks as well as in war zones. It created a new set of safety crises for newsrooms, and it put press freedom on the front page internationally. But it also highlighted the need for culturally sensitive reporting; the disparity between coverage of terrorism attacks affecting the West and those that plague developing countries; the threat of government censorship as a counter.

Trends in Newsrooms is available free to members of WAN-Ifra and the WEF and for purchase by non-members. Details at http://www.wan-ifra.org/reports/2015/06/02/trends-in-newsrooms-2015.

• A webinar will discuss the Trends in Newsrooms report later this month. Among topics is the surge of chat apps and their integration in newsrooms, and Trushar Barot, mobile editor at BBC World Service join the monthly webinar series to discuss their popularity and impact on journalism globally.

The webinar is on July 15 at 14:00 CET and you can sign up free here

Julie Posetti, journalism lecturer at the University of Wollongong and editor of the Trends In Newsrooms report, will moderate discussion and summarise the nine trends featured. The webinar is supported by CCI.